July 24, 1919 – April 12, 2013
Olive was born in Ludlow, Mass., to Olive E. Lisle and Rev. Russell B. Lisle. As the child of a Methodist minister, she and her three siblings moved every few years from Holyoke, to Lynn, and finally to Lowell, Mass.
While attending Lowell High School, she met and later married Safford P. Sweatt with whom she had one daughter and four sons. After her husband returned from the frontlines in WWII, the couple settled in Acton, Mass.
She became a very active participant in her community as President of the Women’s Club where she had roles in several plays; as a Cub Scouts den mother, as a Little League supporter, as a member of the Baptist Church, and as a great basketball fan for her sons. Basketball, especially the Celtics, held her interest right to the end. After the sudden death of her husband in 1962, she worked at the Cambridge Court House as a Title Examiner until her marriage to Donald “Bud” Nickerson and her move to Freeport, Maine in 1970.
The couple divided their time between Freeport, Bustins Island, and the Florida Keys. While summering on the Casco Bay island of Bustins, Olive ran the island store for one season, and eventually the island post office for the longest tenure in island history: 40 years! As Postmaster, she helped the tiny island sell a phenomenal number of stamps which helped insure the future of the island post office.
In the Lower Florida Keys, the couple enjoyed the leisure that their hectic summer life did not allow. They swam, enjoyed boating, and visited with a host of friends and relatives. A few years after Bud’s sudden death in 1992, Olive began spending the winters in Yarmouth, Maine with friends and family to keep her company. Despite some health issues, she never missed a summer on Bustins where a Memorial Celebration will be held this summer.
Olive leaves her five children (Carolyn Boehne, Safford P., Ronald B., Gary L., and Kimball Q. Sweatt) three step-daughters Susan Brokaw, Cali Veilleux, and Laura May Vitali, twelve grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, and a huge family of wonderful friends.
A service will be held Saturday, April 20th at 1pm in the South Freeport Congregational Church.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: The Bustins and Bay Foundation, c/o Warren Baker, 882 Summer St., Marshfield, MA 02050.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
